Tide-power mechanism.



W. T. ERIOKSON; TIDE POWER MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 19, 1913.

1 ,O89,120, Patented Mar. 3, 1914.

FFICE.

WILLIAM '1. ERIGKSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

TIDE-POWER MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent;

Patented Mar. 3, 1914.

Application filed August 19, 1913. Serial No. 785,489.

To all vii-72.0122, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM T. EnronsoN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the borough of Manhattan, in the county of New York, city and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tide-Power Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an apparatus suitable for deriving power by means of the tides.

Attempts have previously been made to raise water by means of floats or buoys through the medium of the rise and fall of the tides, but in order to raise water from the same source as that in which the buoy is floated, it is necessary that the arm of the lever raising the water be considerably longer than the arm of the lever to which the buoy is attached This is necessary in order to raise the water to a height above that of the water when at high tide in order to obtain a fall for power purposes. As a result of this difference in leverage the weight of the water raised can be onlv a small proportion of the weight of the buoy. My invention overcomes this difiiculty which has prevented the practical application of the former methods, and allows the raising of a weight not only equal to the weight of the float or buoy but even greater than the weight. of such float or buoy.

Preferably I employ shot or gravel as the weight to be raised, allowing it to run out of the elevated reservoir to operate a motor or other means of producing power through the medium of a wheel containing buckets on its periphery into which the shot or gravel falls.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification in which the figure represents an elevational view of one form of my invention.

E is a support (in the top of which the lever D pivotally mounted at T. The end R of the lever I) has attached to it pivotally at'V a supporting means consisting of chains C and a supporting cradle N. The end S of the lever D has a chain J pivotally fastened at V, the said chain ending in a hook or fastening means.

F F are buckets to which the chain J may be afllxed, G G being guides for the bucketsl F.

K represents a suitable guide for the chain J.

A loaded vessel B is located in the cradle N at high tide, and as the tide falls the vessel B will fall, raising the lower bucket I carrying a load, preferably of shot. When the tide has reached its lowest point the weighted bucket will be at its highest point as at F at which point it may be-retained by any suitable means as I. The gate H in F may then be opened and the shot allowed to fall down over the wheel L, which it revolves, and into the lower bucket F which will thus be filled ready for raising -when the tide falls again.

Instead of F being a bucket capable of being raised and lowered it may be a permanent reservoir into which the weights from the raised bucket may be deposited and stored until their use is required. By the proper arrangement and number of buckets, an empty one may be lowered during the rise of the tide at the same time an empty one is being filled at the bottom of the device.

In the illustration the lever end R and the lever end S are of the same length, but it is evident that the lever end S may be shorter, in which case, on account of the leverage, a weight will be raised which is greater than the weight of the vessel B.

I do not limit myself to the cradle N as the lever end It may be attached to any buoyant body of any form or nature.

Neither do I limit myself to the particular form of apparatus disclosed in the drawing for ra sing, storing or utilizing the weighted material which has been raised,

nor do I limit myself to shot or gravel as the weighting medium, all of which may be varied without going beyond the scope of my invention which consists in a lever movement whereby a weight equal to or greater than the weight of the buoyant body may be raised by the fall of the tide.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a device of the character specified, a support carrying a pivotally attached lever one arm of which is attached to a buoyantly floated body, the other arm carrying a vessel containing weighted materials, the buoy arm being at least as long as the weight carrying arm, guides for the verti cal rising or falling weight body, a means for retaining the weighted material at its means for producing of the Weight material.

2. In a device of the character specified, a support carrying a pivotally attached lever one arm of which is attached to a vessel carrying cradle, the other arm being attached to a vessel containing Weight material capable of a vertical movement, the length of the arms allowing of the raising of a Weight at least equal to the Weight of the vessel in the cradle, guides for the vertihighest point, and a power by the falling cal rising or falling Weight body, a receptacle for receiving the Weighted material at 1 its greatest height, and a bucketed wheel i revoluble by the fall of the Weight material Signed at New York city, in the county of New York and State ofNeW York, this sixteenth day of August, 1913.

WILLIAM T. ERICKSON.

Witnesses:

l RITA LYNCH,

l LAURA E. SMITH. 

